Amiga

Atomino

I held off reviewing Atomino in order to include it in this issue. (All right. I admit it - I couldn't stop playing long enough last issue to write the review. Wanna make something of it?) The game presents you with a square work space and a dispenser of atoms which you have to put together into molecules. Each atom has a valence of one to four and they must be connected in such a way that there are no free electrons left. If you can manage that, then the molecule disappears and you move on to the next one. The game requires considerable planning and strategy, and it's also highly addictive. By the way, Psygnosis is sticking to their promise to eliminate on-disk copy protection; Atomino is hard drive installable.

Compared to the ST version the Amiga version of Atomino is equally as good, if not better, and is another strong product to add to Psygnosis' ever-growing list of classics.

Geschicklichkeitsgrübeleien haben Hochkonjunktur. Kaum ein Monat vergeht, ohne daß ein neuer Vertreter dieser Spielegattung erscheint. Der neueste Streich für flinke Gehirnakrobaten kommt aus Deutschland. Blue Byte, bekannt durch das Tennisspiel "Great Courts", will nun die grauen Zellen mit "Atomino" auf Trab halten.

After Thalion's Atomix, comes Psygnosis' Atomino, another molecular puzzler where the aim is to join up a series of atoms to form a chain of molecules. Simple enough, you might think, but each atom has its own valance between one and four so that they need to combine with one, two, three or four other atoms before a complete molecule is formed. Any left over and you've failed in your mission.

The gameplay is interesting and easy to get to grips with, although I feel the lastability is questionable. Atomino won't be causing a big stir in the games world but it is worth looking at it if you are a puzzle fan after some molecule madness.

Atomino is one of those games that doesn't really look brilliant. As you can probably see from the screenshots, the magic of Atomino is in its addictiveness. But you will be surprised at just how challenging it really is. The only real problem with it is that I don't think it warrants the full price tag, especially not £25.99. If you're heavily into this sort of game then it's a good buy but otherwise give it a miss.

A fast-paced puzzle game requiring good forward planning. Pleasantly functional graphics and spot effects. Sadly there is only one tune throughout the game. There is not an option for mouse control, which would of helped. It all becomes somewhat repetitive after a while.

Interesting and different, but not really very compulsive, and at the end of the day compulsiveness is the main criterion for puzzle games. Buy Gem-X first, then think about Atomino.

I vanliga fall brukar jag gilla den här typen av hjärngympa, men med Atomino känns det inte som spelet leder någonstans; det är ingen större skillnad mellan nivåerna.